RT Editor-in-Chief Responds To US Congressman's Criticism Of Russian Law On Foreign Agents

RT Editor-in-Chief Responds to US Congressman's Criticism of Russian Law on Foreign Agents

Margarita Simonyan, the editor-in-chief of the RT broadcaster, responded on Tuesday to US Congressman Tom Malinowski's criticism of the Russian law on foreign agents by saying that RT was stripped of accreditation to the US Congress precisely for being a foreign agent

MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 10th December, 2019) Margarita Simonyan, the editor-in-chief of the RT broadcaster, responded on Tuesday to US Congressman Tom Malinowski's criticism of the Russian law on foreign agents by saying that RT was stripped of accreditation to the US Congress precisely for being a foreign agent.

Last week, Malinowski slammed the Russian law on foreign agents in an interview with the Russian-language edition of the Voice of America broadcaster, which is listed as a foreign media agent by the Russian Justice Ministry. The congressman said, in particular, that the adoption of such a law was asymmetrical since RT was able to freely broadcast from his country.

"US congressmen do not like our law on foreign agents ... In fact, RT had its accreditation revoked by the US Congress in 2017 exactly after it was recognized as a foreign agent," Simonyan said on her Telegram channel.

The status of foreign agent for media being financed by foreign states or organizations was introduced in Russia in 2017. On December 2, President Vladimir Putin signed into law additional regulations for the activity of foreign agent media outlets as a response to the oppression of Russian media in the United States and, in particular, the recognition of RT America as a foreign agent.

Washington has been carrying out a major crackdown on Russian media in recent years. Significant pressure was put on RT and Sputnik, with US lawmakers claiming that the media may have been involved in Russia's alleged attempts to influence the US 2016 presidential election. RT and Sputnik, as well as the Russian government, have repeatedly refuted the allegations as unsubstantiated.